


Oh no.

by Cat_With_a_Quill



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Hero Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Hero Logic | Logan Sanders, Hero Morality | Patton Sanders, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Logan is essentially a glorified telepath, Multi, Not Beta Read, Patton can super mario jump, Roman can do a thing with light, Villain Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Virgil can manipulate shadows like oobleck, be warned, beta reading? who's she? never heard of her, he also strong boi, how do tag, reference to dragon witch, soulmate au - telepathic link with soumates, there is a brief anxiety attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:20:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29496432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cat_With_a_Quill/pseuds/Cat_With_a_Quill
Summary: Here’s a weird idea. A superhero au that’s also the soulmate au where you can communicate with your soulmates in your head if you try, but do also have the potential to just... y'know, not.Virgil is in an… interesting situation.
Relationships: LAMP - Relationship, LAMP/CALM
Comments: 4
Kudos: 72





	Oh no.

**Author's Note:**

> What is this.  
> (I will note that it is a seperate universe to my other superhero AU, but still. What is this.)

It wasn’t that Virgil wanted to betray the soulmates he’d never met by listening in on their conversations to make evading capture easier. It wasn’t even like he wanted to hide from them all that much. 

He just… didn’t really have a choice. 

Virgil had been raised by villains to be a villain. He’d been told soulmates were nothing but a distraction and a waste of time, an unnecessary attachment that did nothing but hold you back. The fact that his soulmates just so happened to end up being the next in line for main super protectors of the city just made it oh so much worse. 

He heard every step of their journey. Every thought carelessly sent to the whole group, every conversation that was supposed to be between the three of them. He hated that in itself. If he had been alone or only had one soulmate, he wouldn’t be hearing secrets clearly not meant for him that were impossible to tune out. He heard them at their worst several times over. He’d lost track of the number of times it almost physically hurt not to reach out and comfort one or another late at night when the other two were asleep and the one that had reached out sounded so… sad. It had been with all of them at one point or another. 

It was too late to reach out now, he supposed. 

He heard their internal glee when they first got the offer to train as superheroes under the old main group, all apparently having already met in person by that point. He heard them reach out for support when the going got tough and they felt like they wouldn’t make it through the other side. He heard them complain about their private mentoring sessions and enthuse about all the new things they were learning to do with their powers. 

When they fought together, he heard them strategizing together. 

That’s when he knew he was screwed. 

His parents had pushed him to do one thing and one thing only: be the most powerful villain and the most powerful leader this city had ever seen. They never quite explained why, he suspected it was a Capulet-Montesquieu esque grudge that’s cause had been long forgotten. He wanted to laugh at the idea. If his family were the Capulets and the city a Montesquieu, then they were asking for Tybalt when he was only Juliet. 

He saw two options as it was. 

Either he turned it all down, found some way out, whatever way he could, no matter how much he had to sacrifice, to protect his soulmates, the city, himself in some cruel way, or he did as his parents wanted and used his innate advantage over the new heroes to his advantage to know every move they made just as soon as they did. 

He wasn’t entirely proud of which option he picked.

Which led him to now, robbing a bank and leaving as much destruction in his wake as he did so as possible because “It’s the wrong thing to do”. 

_Sand Dollar bank on twelfth street,_ he heard Logan, or Logos, relay to the others over the link, _the Phantom based on the shadows and strategy employed._

Virgil sighed. He was honestly surprised they hadn’t come sooner, the bank was already looking worse for wear and the single sack he’d brought for money (that he honestly had no idea what to do with and would probably just sneak back to the bank later) was almost full, and he hadn’t even rushed it this time. Alas, the party was over as the after party would soon begin. 

_On our way,_ Roman, The Prince, replied, _what’re the details_

_A portion of the building has collapsed though I do not sense any form of life in the building aside from the Phantom so it would seem no one was injured. The Phantom is currently stalled in one place, but given how past situations have gone, I that does not seem to mean much in terms of our advantage._

Virgil almost scoffed. The sheer amount of times they’d tried to sneak up on him while practically shouting their intentions over the bond was ridiculous. He was honestly surprised none of them had figured something out by now, especially Logan, what with his mind stuff. He supposed that was just the effect of being so unlikable that your soulmates hesitated to even consider that he heard everything they said to each other. 

Part of him whispered that soulmates were supposed to tell when something was missing, like they weren’t complete until they had all the pieces of the puzzle. 

He did his best to smother that part of him. 

Tying off the bag and hefting it over his shoulder, he bolted for the entrance he’d made for himself, using his shadows to stabilize his path. 

_He is on the move,_ said Logos. 

_We’re here, where is he?_

_Southwest corner of the building, by the edge of the collapsed area, he appears to be climbing out through the top._

_On it,_ replied both the Prince and Patton, aka Froggie. 

Great. He’d have to be dealing with both of them in about three, two,

He let the shadows shift into a thick smoke as he saw two figures land on the opposite side of the roof from him, one piggybacking the other. 

Patton’s ability was some sort of super strength that he mostly used to frog jump around the city, giving him his hero name. Roman’s was more difficult to explain, but largely involved refracting light in such a way that it became solid. 

Light refraction. Against shadows. Wasn’t that just soo fun. 

Billowing the cloud up and turning tail as quickly as possible, he didn’t even stop to glance back at the indignant noises the Prince made at being utterly blown off. 

_He’s running,_ Logos said rather helpfully. 

_Uhuh, yeah, I can see that,_ the Prince retorted, smoky shadows still filling the area as he bent light to burn through them. _Well… sort of_

 _Alleyway on south,_ Logos continued, unfazed. 

And Virgil was, indeed, running down an alleyway south of the building. The problem was-

 _It’s a dead end._

Virgil hated that he could feel the smirk in Logos’ mind as the nugget of information was delivered. 

Virgil cursed aloud (it was safer than cursing in his head, or at least, that was his excuse) as he quickly redirected to look for another way out. There wasn’t much, the buildings surrounding the bank were all annoyingly tall and smooth-sided, which really only left- 

_He is attempting to climb the fire escape I believe._

Virgil grimaced as he managed to pull himself up to the first level of the fire escape with the help of his shadows, glancing around fervently. Where was Logos that he could see all of this? He had to be… 

Shit. 

His question was answered almost as soon as he came to the realization himself, so there was really no way he was wrong on this one. 

_I can make my way around to the roof he is on from the one I am on, if you two chase him up from the bottom I believe we may be able to corner him this time._

Logan was on one of the roofs, presumably one of the ones surrounding this very alleyway, and from the footsteps coming from the alleyway beneath him combined with how far he was from reaching the roof, that meaning he was already thoroughly cornered. 

Or… walled more like. 

Also thoroughly nauseous, but who really cared about that one. 

Sighing, he resorted to one of the only tactics he had left. 

He turned around, leaned as casually as he could against the rail of the fire escape, looked down to the Prince and Froggie, and spoke. 

“Hey Princy, Frogger.” He had to call down in order to be heard, but really, what else could he do? “Heard you’ve been doing some fighting around. And I thought we had something special.” 

_Why is he stopping?_ The Prince asked in his head, letting Logos know what was happening. “Better villains have deserved half as much, fiend.” 

“Funny that,” Virgil chuckled, but it was dry and humorless, purely ironic. “I wonder why the universe decided to shove so much attention on little ol’ me.” 

_What is happening? I’m afraid I am confused,_ Logos inquired. 

“You brought this on yourself, and today is the day we bring an end to it!” The Prince proclaimed while Patton sent a message to Logan, appearing entirely baffled by the exchange. 

_He’s just stopped halfway up the fire escape, talking to us. Like he’s trying to distract us from something but I don’t know what._

_Ah. I can see that now, I’m right above him._ Froggie’s gaze flickered and Virgil had to force himself not to look as well. That would be a bit too much of a clue-in. 

Virgil hummed, as though considering a polite offer. “Nah.” 

Princy’s brow furrowed. “Uh, yah. You don’t exactly have a choice in the matter.” 

_This is utterly baffling._ There was a short pause, presumably as Logos conducted a quick scan of minds in the area. _I don’t sense the presence of any other supers in the area. He may be bluffing. Should I attempt to get closer in order to apprehend him or at least scare him down to the two of you?_

 _Sounds like a plan to me,_ Froggie replied. 

_Yeah, sure,_ Princy added. 

“Nah,” Virgil said again, subtly shifting over, away from the ladder that led up. “Not in my schedule. You know how important schedules are, don’t you Logic?” He looked up with the question to where Logos had somehow managed to make it down three levels of fire escapes so stealthily that Virgil was honestly stunned to see how far he had gotten. Quickly attempting to hide his shock, he glanced back down the direction he had come into the alleyway. It was mid evening, so there was a shadow over much of the wall he was at even though it was on the side getting more light, but it didn’t quite reach his level and he wasn’t quite certain there was enough to catch him if he fell. 

_Well, he saw me, now what?_ Inquired Logos. 

Princy glared up at the villain as Virgil contemplated his ever shrinking pool of options. “How do you keep doing that?” 

Virgil was honestly taken aback by the question. He glanced up to see Logos had started moving to the next ladder only to stop as he felt the gaze on him. Virgil bit the inside of his cheek for half a second. He knew that the closer Logan got, the more he could read on someone. From a distance he could sense presence, whether someone had an ability, and to some degree, movement. Close enough, and he could read someone’s mind. 

He’d been careful not to let Logos get that close. This situation meant that if he let Logos get within two levels, he’d be able to get a read, and he was only four levels away. 

He let the false smug smile return to his face, having only faltered for under a second overall. “I’m just that good, Charming. Deal with it.” He decided to take a risk and, moving all the way to the side of the fire escape, braced himself against it with his free hand, bag of money clutched too-tight in the other. “As much as I’d love to continue this little convo, I really do have places to be, so if you don’t mind…” 

Several things happened at once. 

Virgil jumped the rail earning a high pitched squeak of surprise from Froggie, solidifying the shadows into a slide of sorts as much as possible, though as he could really only manage to get them to a thick liquid it was difficult and that meant not quite noticing as Princy raised his hands to redirect the sunlight into the ally as much as possible. 

Logos jumped down only to be caught mid-fall by one of Roman’s light platforms, the Prince now struggling to keep up the two conditions at once. Patton leapt up to grab Logan as Princy focused on the Phantom, who was struggling not to slip through his shadows as long as he was still this high up in the air, unable to stand on the not-so-solid manifestations even if he weren’t so desperately focusing on keeping it together. 

_Patton!_ Roman shouted in their minds just as Patton was about to jump up to Logan, with the general implication of _”get him!”_ and as soon as Logan was on solid ground, Patton was jumping up to try and grab Virgil right out of the shadow slide only for the Phantom to change his direction to the more shadowed side of the alley last second, vaguely seeing the frog-themed superhero as he continued to descend. 

He wasn’t quite quick or informed enough to avoid Roman’s wall of light, however, as he approached the exit of the alleyway, hitting it square on and immediately dropping whatever solidity he had managed to maintain in the shadows, falling through like water with a shout. 

Thankfully - or cursedly, depending on which part of him you were asking - Patton managed to catch him mid-fall in a jump, bridal style embarrassingly enough, offering some much needed cushioning to what might have otherwise been a very unpleasant landing. 

From there, it was all over, as Froggie set him on his feet but locked his arms around the Phantom in what was essentially a very strong hug of submission that Virgil couldn’t break, struggling as he might. 

Prince looked rather smug as he ran over, Logos following close behind, brows quickly furrowing as he got closer. 

If Virgil had to guess why, it was probably due to the fact that the very determined mantra he had running through his head was a very fast paced version of the lyrics to “Welcome to the Black Parade” in a desperate attempt to ward off… other thoughts. 

He could imagine why that might be confusing at first. 

“As I said, today is your day of reckoning, fowl villain!” The Prince said as he and Logos reached Froggie and the Phantom. 

He refused to stomp on Patton’s foot and there wasn’t much liquid shadow could do in this situation, so he was really about out of options at this point aside from-

Nopenopenopenope that’s not how thinking works back to welcome to the black parade yup lyrics are all that exist here can’t think can’t risk that that’s all a nope- 

Logan was looking progressively more and more baffled by his stream of consciousness. 

“He’s hiding something,” the logical super finally said as Prince took the bag of money that Virgil had dropped on the fall down. 

Virgil couldn’t even think of the thing he could be grateful for at that moment due to what it would reveal, but he would later mention that if he’d been in the headspace, he’d have been relieved that the soulmates sharing thoughts when he was too close together caused a horrible reverb due to Logan’s ability, meaning that if Logan was in range, it was talk out loud or manage via eye contact and wordless looks like a normal human being. 

He’d experienced it secondhand through the link before. It wasn’t the sort of thing someone would risk in their worst moments, let alone when one person who might experience said reverb currently couldn’t afford to be distracted. 

As for now, emo lyrics. Emo lyrics and incoherent internal screaming and/or cursing. 

Prince narrowed his eyes at Virgil as Logos didn’t continue. Usually, saying something like that out loud worked as a sort of mind trick to get the person to think of the thing they were trying not to think about. Virgil’s mind was a bit too loud for that to work as Logos just looked even more confused. 

“Either get this over with or let me go, this is a waste of time,” Virgil said without really thinking about it (how could he, his only thoughts were curse words and emo lyrics), trying not to even let his mind process what he’d said too much. 

Princy scoffed. “You’re in no position to be making any demands, Gothic Miffendor. What are you avoiding?” 

Logos’ eyes were close in concentration, brow furrowed tightly. “This is strange,” he commented, “His thoughts are barely drifting at all. Whatever he’s not thinking about it shouldn’t be this easy to prevent himself from thinking about it.” 

_Easy?_ Virgil thought, honestly shocked by the implication. This was one of the most difficult he’d had it in a while. Usually he was avoiding something more avoidable and had the actual music to help him. He’d warded off anxiety and anxious thoughts plenty enough the same way. 

Logos frowned as he heard that thought cross his mind. “That’s not a good way to manage anxiety long-term. Repression actually worsen the effects over time, similarly to what happens with intrusive thoughts. Have your tried talking with someone or-” 

“Logic!” Princy interrupted, “We are interrogating a villain, not giving him therapy or whatever it is you’re doing.” 

Logos shot Princy a glare. “Good mental health and coping mechanisms are important for everyone, even villains. Frequent anxiety can affect physical health as well as mental health and it is important to manage it accordingly.” 

“Aw, I didn’t know you were dealing with anxiety, kiddo,” Froggie said as he hugged the Phantom a little tighter. How this man could harbor such softness even towards a villain, Virgil might never know. 

Princy sighed. “Froggie, what have we said about showing the villains affection?” 

Virgil could only imagine that Froggie pouted. “Not to…” 

Princy nodded, satisfied, much to Logos’ chagrin. “That’s right. Now then-” 

It was about then that Logos froze. He was stoney to begin with, so Princy might have continued were it not for the fact that Virgil’s eyes locked on to the logical super a half moment before it happened, fear already filling his gaze before anything had even been said. 

Virgil hadn’t realized the thought had come until it did. The part of his brain that thought it apparently did not realize the significance of what it was saying. But he knew he messed up as soon as a certain keyword floated up to his subconscious again. 

_God, my soulmates are idiots…_

The mantra that had apparently dropped for long enough for his mind to drift there picked up in a series of curse words progressively getting louder as Logan’s face went through a rather intense series of emotions for the normally expressionless hero. 

In the end, the mind reader managed a very eloquent “What?” 

“Listen, just, let me go and I swear to god I will never commit another crime ever again, hell, we don’t even have to see each other again, just- part ways and pretend we never met. Please. I just- _please_ , my parents- I can’t- they can’t know- you weren’t supposed to- I c-can’t-” Virgil stammered, progressively losing his cool facade more and more as he started getting legitimately choked up, his breath coming faster and faster until he just couldn’t _breath-_

Patton’s arms felt too tight. Roman’s gaze too piercing. And Logan’s _face_ , what the hell was he supposed to do with that? What the hell was Logan feeling? He could only imagine what kind of _disgust, horror, hatred, loathing-_

“Patton, let him go,” Logan said with a sort of authority Virgil didn’t usually hear out loud. 

Roman looked practically scandalized. “But-”

“He’s having an anxiety attack, physical touch, especially unwanted physical touch, could very well worsen it.” Patton let go of Virgil without any further hesitation, and Virgil fell to his knees without any other prompting, curling in on himself as the sobs came. “Please, _please_ don’ttellanyoneIpromiseI’llneverbotheryouagainjustpleaseletmeleave-” 

“Phantom,” Logan said, causing Virgil to flinch away, and when had he crouched down in front of Virgil? “I apologize that I don’t have a better name to call you if that one is sensitive in this situation. Can you understand me? That is rather important.” 

Virgil gave a single jerky nod after a moment of undesired hesitation. 

“Do you think you would be able to name five things you can see for me?” 

Virgil shook his head. 

“Alright, how about just breathing for now then? I believe I remember one breathing exercise, in for four, hold for seven, out for eight. Do you think you could follow that if I counted for you?” A hesitation and a head shake. “What if I exaggerated my breathing to the pattern? Could you follow my breathing?” A hesitant nod.

It took a full minute before Virgil managed to follow the breathing properly, and another couple before it helped much at all. “Do you think you could name five things you can see now?” Logan asked when he noticed the calmer but still not quite out of the woods state Virgil had reached. 

Virgil hesitated. “Y-you, th-the wa- the wall… The fir-fire escape.. Um…” 

_Impending doom_ his mind screamed. 

“The dumpster… Froggie,” He finished instead. 

Logan nodded. “Now four things you can feel.” 

_Dread. Regret. A bad feeling._

“The ground,” He said instead, “My-my mask, a cold draft from somewhere, my outfit.” 

“Three things you can hear.” 

_Is that the sweet call of death?_

“Your v-voice, my voice, the street traffic.” His own brow furrowed as he realized he hadn’t heard any sirens yet. Surely someone would at least come to scope out the damages to the bank and make sure no one had been killed or injured? 

“Best not to focus on that for now. Two things you can smell.” 

“Ah… garbage and…” He raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Froggie. “Why do you smell like cookies?” Froggie giggled softly and shrugged. 

“One thing you can taste.” 

Virgil took a moment to figure out if there was anything to taste in his mouth. “Dust?” 

“That works.” Logan glanced at something at the entrance to the alleyway before looking back at Virgil. “Your mind has been figuratively traveling through time and space. From unpleasant memories to worst case scenarios, both of which almost entirely take place elsewhere. However, you are here. Now. You are safe.”

Before he could even give a dry scoff and a sarcastic comment, Logan added, “I will make sure of it. But I will need you to talk to us. I may be able to read minds to understand more or less what the situation is, but they cannot, and I’m afraid this is something best heard directly from the source.” 

Virgil looked at the ground for a moment. Then he looked up at Logan, confusion written all over his face. “How are you not-” 

“Considering there are multiple different versions of that question going through your head right now and most of them phrased rather poorly, and by that I mean too narrow scoped or negative, let me put it this way: as much as I saw your secret and many other reactions I could have had written over your expectations, I also saw much of your reasoning for keeping it. While I cannot say it was the right way to go about things… I can see why you did so, if the memories and scenarios that flashed through your mind during the attack are anything to go by. If you explain it to them, I am sure they will too.” 

Virgil chose to accept this reasoning and move on, shifting so he could sit more comfortably. “You might want to sit down for this too,” He said to Patton, then looked over the where Logan had glanced to see Roman sulking off by the entrance to the alleyway. “You too, Prince Alarming.” 

Grimacing all the way, Roman made his way back over and sat down, immediately causing Patton to shift so he could lean on him. 

Virgil hesitated, trying to figure out how to word it best, picking at a loose thread on his outfit. 

_Hey, guess what, funny story, I’m your soulmate!_ His mind provided. 

“I know all of your identities,” His mouth said instead. 

He couldn’t quite decide which was worse but given the degree of Logan’s face palming, he guessed both were pretty bad. 

“Phantom,” Logan growled more than spoke his name. Virgil shrugged. 

“What?” Roman said more than asked, utterly stunned. Patton recoiled slightly, a hint of fear in his eyes. 

Logan sighed. _Look,_ He said in their heads, all four of them recoiling and instinctively covering their ears from the reverb. When Patton and Roman noticed that Virgil had done so as well, their faces morphed into shock for an entirely different reason. 

“Oh, kiddo…” Patton murmured softly. 

Roman, meanwhile, shifted more into anger. “So, what? You ignore the fact you have soulmates for who-knows-how-long and then when we become superheroes, you decide to use our soulbond to your advantage so you can become a supervillain and get away with crimes?” He scoffed. “You immoral, selfish, soul-breaking son of a-” 

“Roman,” Logan interrupted calmly, seeing Virgil shrink further in on himself with every word. “The situation is a tad more complicated than that.” 

Roman fixed his intelligent soulmate with a glare. “How? What could possibly excuse years of _listening in_ in exchange for a free trip to supervillainy?” 

Logan sighed. “Roman, look at him.” He gestured to the apparent soulmate who was on his way to becoming an anxious ball of grey and black once more. “Tell me, why would someone with anxiety issues this intense go around wrecking general havoc, and not always for any sort of apparent gain on his end need I remind you, without some sort of reason? This goes beyond how he handled the soulbond alone.” 

Roman huffed in annoyance but fixed his gaze on the Phantom, expectant. Virgil shifted uncomfortably. 

“My parents are the Dragon Sorceress and October Shades.” 

Virgil was beginning to wonder if it was possible to get those shocked looks permanently stuck on their faces. He caught a small gasp of “Dragon witch!” whispered out from Roman, barely audible. Virgil chuckled. 

“I didn’t know they had a kid,” Patton said, giving Virgil a concerned look. 

“I didn’t know they were together,” Roman said with a furrowed brow. 

Virgil rubbed his neck. “Yeah, well. They are. And they did. Didn’t exactly broadcast it or anything. They’re not even soulmates. They sort of… raised me to be a villain. Didn’t exactly account for the internet exposing me to normal human morals and genetics or some shit giving me anxiety. They mostly keep me in line through… threats… and making good on those threats when I disobey them… This- this was one of those things.” He gestured around in general, as if referring to the entire situation. 

“Then you could have run away! Asked us for help!” Roman seemed determined to stay annoyed. “Parents are no excuse for how you act. Some of the braves characters in history had horrible parents!” 

Virgil frowned. “It’s not that easy. They- they know _everything_ that I do. That’s part of mom’s power, she can sort of… scry on people when she wants to.” He glanced around, almost paranoid. “Which also means at this point, chances are, it’d be a pretty damn bad idea to head home after this. Anyway, they don’t- this actually breaks like four of their rules, heh, would have been three if they knew two of them were essentially the same before this, but…” 

“What do you mean?” Roman pressed. 

Virgil sighed. “My parents always assumed I had two soulmates. Two, _normal_ soulmates, that’s what they guessed when I said my soulmate _s_ hadn’t stopped talking in my head after a year. I… never told them that it was you. They might have…” Virgil shivered and trailed off. 

“You were afraid they would use you to get to us,” Logan provided, finishing the thoughts that Virgil couldn’t quite but apparently the logical one found it important to verbalize, “that they would force you to attack us head on with your link instead of using it as a motivation to escape situations involving us faster or a subtle advantage.” 

Virgil nodded. “They still didn’t want me talking to my soulmates at all. The other rules were not to consort with superheroes, especially you three, not to get caught, and not to tell anyone they were my parents.” 

“Kiddo…” 

They were all quiet for a moment. Even Princy didn’t seem to have an immediate reaction to that part. 

Slowly, Virgil reached up to his face. Might as well break one more rule while he was at it after all. It was only fair. 

Taking off his mask, he allowed his mismatched eyes to glance at each of them before blurting out; “My name is Virgil!”

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus:  
> I headcanon their mentors as Thomas, Joan, and Talyn, Thomas having ended up as the leader of this former superhero team. 
> 
> Logan, when they first meet properly: Prism- sorry, Thomas, was it? I have never quite been able to pinpoint what your powers are. I am aware that it has something to do with light manipulation but not in any way similar to Roman’s ability. What exactly is your ability?” 
> 
> Thomas: *clears throat and creates a rainbow between his hands*  
> Thomas: I call it the power of gay.


End file.
